Torchbearer Finalists
+ Overall Winner    * Regional Winner

KEN ANDERSON
President & CEO
Anderson & Associates
Blacksburg
Anderson believes in employee empowerment. His company has instituted an employee stock ownership plan, and by 2003, the Employee Ownership Trust is expected to own 100 percent of the firm. Anderson practices "open-book" management, which reveals financial information — including salaries — to all employees.

G. ROBERT ASTON
Chairman & CEO
TowneBank
Portsmouth
Last year, Aston raised more than three times the $8 million to $10 million of capital that most start-up banks in Virginia generate. TowneBank simultaneously opened branches in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Aston has since launched several initiatives to promote customer service, including a program that provides special discounts and benefits to community leaders, such as firefighters and school teachers.

THOS. E. CAPPS
Chairman, President & CEO
Dominion Resources
Richmond
Capps has led a massive restructuring of Virginia Power, Dominion Resources’ largest subsidiary. He has been a strong proponent of electricity deregulation. Capps also was a pioneer in the independent power production industry, and he has helped move Dominion Resources into the natural gas production business.

STEPHEN M. CASE +
Chairman & CEO
America Online
Dulles
As chairman and CEO of AOL, Case has placed the company at the center of the online world. By making the Internet more user friendly, and by focusing on building market share, AOL catapulted itself from the fourth largest Internet service provider in the nation to the No. 1 Internet company in the world in just a few years.

KATHERINE K. CLARK
Co-founder & CEO
Landmark Systems
Vienna
Clark’s company is the leading worldwide provider of performance management tools that measure and enhance the operation of large computer systems. Landmark Systems has quickly evolved into a public company with revenues of $52 million. The company spends a whopping one-fourth of that figure on research and development.

MICHAEL A. DANIELS *
Chairman
Network Solutions
Herndon
Daniels has played key roles in building Northern Virginia’s technology community. He helped develop Arpanet and Darpanet, the government-run networks that evolved into the Internet. Daniels became chairman of Network Solutions in 1995 and helped the company achieve a multibillion-dollar market value.

MOHAMMAD KOOCHEKZADEH *
Chairman & CEO
Picus
Norfolk
Koochekzadeh has directed the company since its inception last year. He pioneered the concept of bundling telecommunication services for a flat monthly fee, making Picus the first telco in the country to offer a package that includes local telephone service, 500 minutes of long-distance dialing plus Internet access.

ROBERT KOPSTEIN
CEO
Optical Cable
Roanoke
Kopstein saw commercial potential for fiber-optic cables and co-founded his company with a few partners. Soon after its 1996 initial public offering, the small company’s market value soared above $1 billion, but it has since settled down to less than half of that lofty figure. The company continues to gain market share in its fiber-optic niche.

ALEXANDER J. KREKICH
President
Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock
Norfolk
Krekich has spruced up the shipyard by planting trees and flowers, and his management style has perked up the employees, too. Krekich’s motto is: "People are important." He actively solicits employee input, and he has used it to help return the shipyard to profitability.

OLIVER G. RICHARD III
Chairman, President & CEO
Columbia Energy Group
Herndon
Richard became Columbia’s top executive in 1995 as the company emerged from bankruptcy. He moved the company’s headquarters to Virginia from Wilmington, Del., and the bottom line has bounced back nicely. Richard is a leader in energy deregulation, and he is diversifying the company by building a fiber-optic network from Washington, D.C., to New York.

RICHARD L. SHARP
Chairman & CEO
Circuit City Stores
Richmond
Sharp is credited with Circuit City’s phenomenal growth, and many consider him an innovator in consumer electronics retailing. He pioneered the concept of CarMax, the nation’s first used-car superstore. Sharp uses information technology to gain operational efficiencies and strategic advantages. He also is not afraid to take risks: This summer the company pulled the plug on Divx, an attempt to revolutionize the digital video industry.

WILLIAM L. SCHRADER
Chairman & CEO
PSINet
Herndon
Schrader has built his Internet service provider into a 2,000-employee company with offices in 12 countries. Though Internet companies are being acquired rapidly, PSINet has managed to remain independent. The company provides businesses with Internet access, managed Web hosting, e-commerce support and network security.

JOHN D. TICKLE *
President
Strongwell
Bristol
Tickle has built Strongwell into the world’s largest producer of structural fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Think of him as the guy in "The Graduate" who told Dustin Hoffman to focus on "plastics." Tickle is taking "plastics" to the next level. Strongwell, for example, has developed composite beams for highway bridges and fireproof decking for offshore platforms.

JAMES E. UKROP *
Chairman
Ukrop’s Super Markets and First Market Bank
Richmond
Ukrop keeps grocery shoppers coming back by exemplifying customer service, corporate integrity and community involvement. He also has been an innovator in valued-customer cards, ready-to-eat foods and supermarket banking. Ukrop’s owns 51 percent of First Market Bank, one of the country’s most successful community bank start-ups.

CRAIG WINN
Founder & Chairman
Value America
Charlottesville
Winn is changing the way people shop. His online retailing company sells a wide variety of top brands. Value America is addressing the drawbacks of Internet shopping by providing product descriptions that include photos and video clips. The company’s Web site also features an area where customers can provide feedback on the products they purchased.